So I trapped the swarm built the hive, dumped them in, and left them alone for a week.

I moved them 10 metres last night to the best spot for them, put a branch infront of the hive.

Today, first day out foraging from the new spot, theres about 50 returning to the old spot and flying around where the hive box used to be. I presume its not the same 50 all the time. Theres a steady stream to and from the hive in the new location. Will the lost ones finally get the message throught the day? or will they wander forever lost in the big world?

hope someone can tell me, Illlet you know either way.

Im not game to move it back to where it was as I think it would only confuse them more.

wow theres about 90% returning to the old spot and the rest to the new one. I can smell the new one from about 5 yards away so I hope when the seabreeze kicks in they will smell it too.

ZBe interesting in about 8 hours time when its getting dark.

Wow the real hive is really buzzing now and theres a lot more activity at it. Its a fine spring day here and a lot of them have heaps of pollen on them.

The old spot still has a constant stream to and from it, but its not getting any worse. I have a feeling that most of em will work it out by the end of today and tomorrows weather is the same so by when i go back to work it should be ok. fingers crossed. :)

If there is nothing at the old location for them where are they going? If there IS something at the old location, don't put it there except just before dark. That way they don't have anywhere to go except to find the new loation.

If you put a box there to get the stragglers, be sure to put a branch in front of it after you move it next to the new location. And make sure it's NOT there EXCEPT right before dark.

Well after 9 hours of daylight theres only a few dozen die hards at the old spot. The new hive is really buzzin lots of activity. MIght have a first look in it tomorrow and take some pics, thatll be 10 days after capturing them i wonder what ill find?

I dont kow if they were robber bees coz there wouldnt be much to rob as they started on wired foundation only.

Well good news and bad. We all had to move house so its been interesting. I looked in the hive and to my dismay the second frames foundation in had collapsed in a zigzag pattern. I resecured the remaining foundation to the frames as best I could and left them alone as we had to move.

I taped them up at night and we moved 15k opr about 10mi and I opened them up an hour after arrival at 11am. They were into action immediately and really went for the water!

That was 2 weeks ago. I will open them up soon to see if anymore have collapsed. I hope not and dont think so as it hasnt been long enough.

Well I opened it up and took some pics but i was in a hurry so nothing worth posting.

The first and second frames are pretty much glued together and to each other but are chocka block full of bees. The third frame is covered in bees both sides and looks straight, no warping. The fourth is also heavily covered on one side and lightly on the other. All these seems to be being filled and capped so all looks good.

The other frames need to be refondationed (?) so I think I will try to buy some already embedded.

One sheet of wax was lying at the bottom on the hive, acting as sort of a rubbish trap. There are lots of small white eggs and some 2mm long white thin maggots i think crwling around. they are as thin as a human hair and have brown heads and crawl like a catepillar with the back hunching. I suspect they might have been eating the foundation. Any ideas guys? They remind me of fruit fly larvae, just a spec.

Aside from that they look happy enough, thre were more in the hive than I expected, but i spose there are a lot more bees now!

Do you have exra roo in your hive box? It is wise to restrict the room as large as bees have occupied the frames. Other frames is better to take away. You put exta loose wall inside the box. It keeps hive warm and it easy to bees protect their frames.

Thanks Finsky, I get the idea, makes sense, bt its summer here, average 30c during the day and 14c during the night, so do you still think I should remove the other frames and block off the rest of the hive?